Diagnostic Devices:

    Access to quality and affordable healthcare is one of the most prohibitive barriers faced by the Indian society. Our reliance on mostly unaffordable & seldom suitable foreign technology exacerbate this problem. Prof. Singh’s work is a significant step to bridge this gap. He developed next generation, ultrasensitive, nano-biosensor for the detection of various disease biomarkers based on target specific anibodies (malaria, cardiac arrest) and DNA hybridization (Breast cancer, Dengue etc.), easy-to-use, point of care diagnostic devices.

    Though nano-biosensors have been developed as an academic curiosity for various purposes yet very little has been achieved in term of their development as a reliable tool in daily life. The reasons are manifolds. Prof. Singh provided ingenious solutions to achieve robust, accurate and consistent nano-biosensors . He engineered the mitigation of electronic variability of sensors by devising “multistep randomization process.” Another breakthrough was the development of novel nano-materials such as MWCNT doped ZnO electrospun nanowires. Last but not the least, innovative one-step in-situ functionalization of the nanowires was critical for developing nano-biosensors which have commercial potential . The chemiresistive /electrochemical device based on this approach is not only one of the most sensitive but also the first ever successful POC diagnostic platform`s for the quantitative and qualitative analysis reported to date in the world.

    This work has been published in esteemed Journals such as Biosensors and Bioelectronics, ACS Materials Interface, Sensors & Actuators, etc., and has been cited internationally in top journals. In particular, his work about the detection of malarial parasite and dengue has been cited more than 50 times. This work received the Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award and Medal from The President of India. The technology was demonstrated in Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was further recognized through INAE Innovative Student Best Thesis Award 2018, while BIRAC-SRISTI granted Rs.15 lakhs for product development because this technology has the potential for reaching the masses and addressing important social needs. It also attracted wide media coverages in Indian news outlets. Additionally, his work involving the detection of Dengue viral DNA got second best poster award in prestigious IEEE Sensors conference 2017 at Glasgow, UK.

    Prof Singh was invited for research collaboration by KIMS hospitals (Hyderabad), LVPEI (Hyderabad) & Little flower hospital Kochi, for clinical trials and research work on biosensors. Also, on account of his expertise in developing biosensors for cardiac biomarker detection, Prof. Singh was invited to write a review article. He was also invited to submit a research article to Analytical Methods, for a special issue covering electrochemical sensors for healthcare. Further, he was invited to write book chapters on electrochemical biosensors and infectious disease detection. His biosensors have all the attribute for becoming commercially relevant products such as: high stability (shelf life tested up to 8 weeks without packaging or control preservation), selectivity (highly selective towards targeted antigen), interference resistant (almost negligible interference with respect to other bio analytes), reusability (can be reused with max 10% reduced sensitivity), and high reproducibility. Notably, Avanteal Diagnostics, USA, is in the process of commercializing this technology.